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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Writing on Wednesday - Guest Darlene Arden on Interviewing People

It's my pleasure to welcome author Darlene Arden. Those of you who know Darlene's work will be surprised to see that she's not here to talk about cats or dogs, but rather about the all-important (for many freelance writers and for authors and other people who want to be interviewed!) -- the art of the interview. - Sheila

Interviewing

by Darlene Arden

I’ve
been interviewing almost as long as I’ve been writing and I never started out
to be a writer.I was a Voice Major, an
actress/singer/dancer occasional choreographer and occasional writer but that
writing was mostly script doctoring. And I did precious little of that.
However, that career became the basis of a new career.How I got here is another story for another
time.

I
began writing interviews for various magazines, mainly celebrity profiles, long
before I began writing about dogs and cats.Because of my background, talking to actors came easily. It also gave me
a clear insight into my interview subjects.Been there, done that, just not at that particular level. More than one
actor blurted out, “You don’t ask the same questions everyone else asks!”I finally asked what they had been asking. My
curiosity was definitely piqued.“What’s
your favorite color?” seemed to be an evergreen.How utterly boring.

One
thing I recommend for anyone who is doing an interview is to do your
homework.You’ll probably receive (and
you should) a bio from their publicist.Even people in other fields have publicists. If they don’t then do as
much background research as you can.It’s much easier today with the internet providing much more information
than pre-internet days.

Ask
questions that interest you. If they interest you, chances are good that they
will interest your readers. If you’re doing the interview in person, you may
want to set the scene. You can certainly add some color to the interview by,
for example, adding that the person shrugged, or rolled her eyes, etc.

Be
an active listener. Don’t just think about your next question.Really listen to the response to the question
you just asked. It may lead naturally to another question and the interview
might go in a direction you never planned that might be even more interesting
than your original idea.

Think
about the type of writer you want to be. Do you want to be positive or spread
dirt? Seriously.There is ample
opportunity for either, and the choice is yours.Here’s a real-life example.I was interviewing a television actor. This
was not in person, but by telephone, which can happen as a result of
logistics.His voice sounded a tiny bit
slurred and then I heard the clinking of ice cubes in a glass. When he began
running down his show and the network I saw a red flag.The guy was drunk. I could have used that in
the article. And, as a result, he probably would have been fired.I didn’t want that on my conscience. Maybe he
was having a bad day. Maybe he had a lousy day at work. Maybe he didn’t like
the way his character was going at that point. Maybe he thought he didn’t have
enough lines.Who knows?But his indiscretion that day could have led
to a very different sort of article. I didn’t want him to lose his job because
of me so I very deliberately chose to omit that from the article.I also gave his publicist a heads-up in case
the next writer wasn’t inclined to be generous, or even thoughtful of anything
but splashy headlines that might have made his career at the actor’s
expense.The publicist was grateful and
always gave me his best clients.I
wasn’t looking to build my career on someone else’s bad day.

There
were other incidents. A couple of people were downright nasty.I didn’t run them down in print but I didn’t
interview them a second time.

It
doesn’t matter if you’re interviewing actors, doctors, or family members for a
memoir, because the basics are the same. Often there are some wonderful
surprises. I’ve always thought of interviewing as fun and educational. I enjoy
serving as a bridge between the interview subject and the reader. And I’ve
nearly always learned something new and interesting.

Darlene Arden is an award-winning writer and author. Arden, a
Certified Animal Behavior Consultant, lectures widely on wellness for pets
including, behavior, training, and nutrition She is also an experienced
television producer/host, and a lively guest expert on various radio and
television programs and a popular and much acclaimed speaker.

A founding member of The International Association of Animal Behavior
Consultants, a founding member and former director of the Cat Writers’
Association, former member and director of Dog Writers Association of America,
a member of the World Dog Press Association as well as Boston Authors, she is
one of the few layperson members of The American Association of Human-Animal
Bond Veterinarians and a member of Boston Authors, among her numerous awards
are the CWA Muse Medallion, and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals/American Humane Education Society’s Media Award for
veterinary writing and animal welfare. In her “spare time,” Arden is a volunteer Cat
Behavior Consultant for Pets for Life, NY.

15 comments:

Thanks for this insightful article. With the dearth of tabloid type journalism, it's refreshing to be reminded integrity does exist. I interview authors and like to go off script following my intuition. The clues are often not in what they say but how they say it: the tone, energy or hesitation speaks volumes. Fame or any media attention is fleeting. On the celebrity wheel of life, we may meet the same people on their way or on their way down. treating everyone with kindness and respectful goes a long way.

Thank you, Sheila and Darlene for an interesting article. I do, however, have a question for you, if that is ok? Do any interviewees ever insist on a rehearsal or, an agreed list of questions, which totally avoid personal taboo subjects? Just curious, as some interviews seem to go like clockwork.

Darlene has already answered, but I will as well....I never allow interviewees to review my stories/articles, other than technical material. These days I'm more often on the other end of the interview, and I never expect to see it before it comes out. That said, although I have never given anyone a set of taboo subjects, I have on occasion declined to answer a question that I found either too personal or otherwise not something I wanted to explore at that time. I hope that's useful.

I'm glad you asked. On rare occasion I've had someone tell me that a personal topic was off-limits. I was fine with respecting that. There were plenty of other things to talk about.

Some people want to review the article before it goes to print. My answer is a polite no, unless it's technical veterinary medical information and then that's all I want them to comment on, none of the rest of the piece. I'm a stickler for accuracy.

One question for y'all: do you tape-record your interviews? There seems, these days, to be some degree of "He said, she said" conflict when controversial points are raised with people who are interviewed.

I will add that these days I MUCH prefer to interview and be interviewed by e-mail (assuming that the interview is for print - obviously radio/TV is something else!). E-mail allows time for the interviewee to consider the answers and to edit them for clarity.

I'll just add that I find this can be a double-edged sword. I'm careful not to ask too many questions via e-mail. I've been interviewed via e-mail and found that I've virtually written the person's article. I like the accuracy of the quotes via e-mail but I don't like to do someone else's job for them and I don't want anyone else doing mine. I also find that very busy people do not have the time or inclination to answer many questions via e-mail. I've heard the comments and took those as a heads-up.

Which just goes to show that everyone's different :-) As a "very busy person," when I'm the interviewee, I actually like being able to respond when and where I please, in spurts, in my jammies, if necessary. As interviewer, I don't see written responses as doing my work - I still write the bulk of the content, but have accurate quotations at my fingertips. If the other party can't or prefers not to work by email, of course we don't. As a writing teacher/workshop facilitator, one point I hope everyone walks out with is that we all work differently! >^..^< Great food for thought, Darlene!

I find this absolutely fascinating. I think it's important to respect the interviewee's wishes. We do work differently and I try to adjust to the person. One point I should have made is that e-mail is particularly useful when interviewing someone in another country. Not only can phone rates be prohibitive but often the time change makes it particularly difficult.

Thank you for this interview, and I am glad I now know about this blog. I have enjoyed reading about Darlene Arden, because I have known about her love and gift for writing about cats and dogs, but I've learned here that her writing goes far beyond. How nice to know that integrity still exists in an age of tabloid journalism. Thank you both- and thank you for sharing your insights into writing!